LONDON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX: FT) (OTCQB: FTMDF) (“Fortune” or the “Company”) (www.fortuneminerals.com) is pleased to provide an update on the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project (“NICO Project”) Feasibility Study (the “Study”) that is nearing completion. The NICO Project is comprised of a planned open pit and underground mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and a dedicated hydrometallurgical facility in Alberta (“Alberta Refinery”) that will process concentrates from the mine, and other feed sources, to value-added products for the energy transition, new technologies, and defence. Worley Canada Services Ltd. (“Worley”) is leading the Study team, with P&E Mining Consultants Inc. (“P&E”), Micon International Limited (“Micon”) and WSP Canada Inc. (“WSP”) also contributing their respective expertise. Worley are also leading a Front-End Engineering and Design (“FEED”) study for the NICO Project to provide more detailed engineering information for procurement. Natural Resources Canada is contributing to the cost of FEED and product sensitivities for the Study through the Global Partnership Initiative (“GPI”) program (see news releases dated, May 16, 2024).
ENGINEERING Engineering for the base case development scenario for the Study is essentially complete. The Company is currently engaged with its engineering partners reviewing and optimizing the concentrator and Alberta Refinery capital and operating costs. Some design changes to reduce costs are requiring modifications to the site layouts and building designs and are still in progress.
Two process opportunities have also been recognized to increase gold revenues and provide a lower capital and operating cost cobalt product start-up option for the Alberta Refinery and are being incorporated into the Study.
ADDITIONAL GOLD RECOVERY P&E has prepared updated Mineral Reserve estimates for the NICO deposit based on the current metal prices and costs, and an updated geological block model with more constrained Mineral Resource boundaries to reduce modelling dilution and provide better differentiation of higher-grade resource blocks for earlier processing. The new Mineral Reserves and the updated mine plan and production schedule will be announced as part of the Study when it is complete.
The NICO deposit ores have a distinct grade-recovery relationship for gold that requires recoveries to be determined on a block-by-block basis from the Mineral Resource block model. P&E has determined that the average gold recovery is 73.3% during bulk flotation concentration at the mine site. Most of the metal recovery losses for the NICO Project occur during bulk flotation, and 6% to 11 % of the feed gold reports to the bulk cleaner scavenger tailings where it was previously considered to be lost. Test work carried out by SGS Canada Inc. (“SGS”) has indicated gold recoveries of 77% to 85 % from this stream using carbon-in-leach technology. Worley is now preparing the design engineering for a new circuit at the mine site to recover this additional gold for incorporation into the Study. Loaded carbon from the mine site would be shipped to the gold plant at the Alberta Refinery for final processing to doré bars.
COBALT MIXED HYDROXIDE PRECIPITATE START-UP OPTION The base case for the Study contemplates producing a cobalt sulphate heptahydrate product for the lithium-ion rechargeable battery industry. However, cobalt prices have been variable over the past year with respect to the cobalt payables in hydroxide, sulphate and metal products. Consequently, Fortune has been assessing an option for producing a high-grade cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate (“CoMHP”) intermediate product as an alternative start-up option to reduce initial capital and operating costs. CoMHP is a marketable cobalt product that could be further processed to sulphate or metal. If the Company elects to pursue this option at start-up, the sulphate production circuits could still be constructed after the Alberta Refinery is commissioned using cash flow from operations. Fortune has been conducting test work at SGS for several months to validate this option and has produced CoMHP with grades ranging from 35% to 47% cobalt and 1.8% to 2.1% nickel as the payable metals. Current tests are focused on reducing the moisture content of the finished product using a magnesia-based reagent while maintaining the chemical specifications that have already been achieved. Worley is also working on the engineering for this process option to incorporate it into the Study with an economic trade-off analysis.
RIO TINTO PROCESS COLLABORATION Fortune is continuing to advance its process collaboration with Rio Tinto to provide a process and marketing solution for bismuth that can be sourced from Kennecott Smelter wastes in Utah (see news release, dated September 29, 2023).
ALBERTA REFINERY PUBLIC MEETINGS Fortune held public meetings in the towns of Lamont and Bruderheim, Alberta on October 21 and 22, respectively to provide information about the planned hydrometallurgical facility. This part of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland has received significant attention with the recent pipeline and AI data centre announcements and Fortune is pleased to be part of the area’s economic growth.
Development of the NICO Project would provide a reliable, vertically integrated, domestic supply of cobalt chemicals, bismuth ingots, and copper cement products with supply chain transparency and custody control of the metals from ore through to the production of value-added metal products. Cobalt sulphate is used to make the cathodes of high-performance lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles, portable electronics, and stationary energy storage cells. Bismuth has unique physical and chemical properties used in diverse applications in the automotive, aerospace, plumbing, electronics, environmental, pharmaceutical and defence industries and cannot be easily substituted with other metals. The more than one million ounces of in-situ gold in the NICO deposit s a countercyclical and highly liquid co-product that can mitigate critical mineral price volatility.
For more detailed information about the NICO Mineral Reserves and certain technical information in this news release, please refer to the Technical Report on the NICO Project, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon International Limited which has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca.
The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release have been approved by Robin Goad, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and Chief Executive Officer of Fortune and Alex Mezei, M.Sc., P.Eng. Fortune’s Chief Metallurgist, who are "Qualified Persons" under National Instrument 43-101.
About Fortune Minerals Fortune is a Canadian mining company focused on developing the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Fortune also owns the satellite Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit located 25 km north of the NICO deposit and is a potential future source of incremental feed to extend the life of the NICO concentrator.
This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. This forward-looking information includes statements with respect to, among other things, the construction of the proposed NICO Project mine and concentrator and Alberta Refinery, and the Company’s plans to develop the NICO Project. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management as well as certain assumptions at the date the information is given (including, in respect of the forward-looking information contained in this press release, assumptions regarding: the Company’s ability to complete construction of a NICO Project; the Company’s ability to arrange the necessary financing to continue operations and develop the NICO Project; the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals for the construction and operation of the NICO Project and the related Alberta Refinery and the timing thereof; the time required to construct the NICO Project; and the economic environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of gold, cobalt, bismuth and other by-product metals, anticipated costs and the volumes of metals to be produced at the NICO Project. However, such forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. These factors include the risks related to the new Mineral Reserves, Mine Plan and production schedule for the NICO Project, the Company may not be able to finance and develop the NICO Project on favourable terms or at all, uncertainties with respect to the receipt or timing of required permits, approvals and agreements for the development of the NICO Project, including the related Alberta Refinery, the construction of the NICO Project may take longer than anticipated, the Company may not be able to secure offtake agreements for the metals to be produced at the NICO Project, the Sue-Dianne Property may not be developed to the point where it can provide mill feed to the NICO Project, the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties and in the mining industry in general, the market for products that use cobalt or bismuth may not grow to the extent anticipated, the future supply of cobalt and bismuth may not be as limited as anticipated, the risk of decreases in the market prices of cobalt, bismuth and other metals to be produced by the NICO Project, discrepancies between actual and estimated Mineral Resources or between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries, uncertainties associated with estimating Mineral Resources and Reserves and the risk that even if such Mineral Resources prove accurate the risk that such Mineral Resources may not be converted into Mineral Reserves once economic conditions are applied, the Company’s production of cobalt, bismuth and other metals may be less than anticipated and other operational and development risks, market risks and regulatory risks. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information because it is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forms of forward-looking information will not be achieved by the Company. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.
